Yay, maybe?

It's not entertaining enough to fill our oceans with plastic straws and extinguish existing live forms on Earth.

  ...So?

 For a new twist of entertainment lets send garbage where life forms are yet to be found and see if they don't magically appear?  

Sounds logical to me?

What's the objective?

The original "Space Race" was to get to the moon. The purpose for even going into space was to explore avenues to spy on the Soviets and thwart their efforts to do the same to us.

But it has turned into a huge money pit, spending trillions of dollars that could be better spent on domestic issues.

In the meantime, the budget of the US government is on a "there's no stopping us now" perpetual rise, spending is out of control, there is no such thing as fiscal responsibility, America is on the brink of bankruptcy...

...and we have to write humongous checks to see things that are totally unnecessary to our survival as a human race.

To quote Edward C. Prescott, "You can't spend your way to prosperity".

An extraterrestrial object wouldn't last a day if it landed in a habitable location on Earth. It would be cut up and auctioned on Ebay. That's what humans do.

Mankind pollutes and think it has no consequences however this mission 

is a great accomplishment unlike all that 

satellite garbage in space . 

You would be shocked to know how many tons of space garbage is flying around planet earth.  There are at least 3000 inoperable satellites, for example.  Garbage.  Maybe 2 or 3000 operable ones.

It'll be okay- it's not like Mars has an ecosystem to ruin.

Earth on the other hand.

I get your point. But the problem is , there's no way to bring things back. Otherwise they would ha r brought back samples.

     No, we wouldn't like ETs .leaving junk here. And Mars is getting cluttered. There are 10 landers/former landers, still there. 

     A bigger problem, would be territorial demands made by various countries. I know China is planning a manned moon mission for mid 2028, or so. Will there be wars,?

Yes, we are leaving our junk on Mars, and on the moon and in earth orbit. We polluted earth. Why would you think we wouldn't do the same to Mars? 

i would hope theyre not doing all that

>>Yay, maybe?

Maybe?  Its "Yay, indeed!" 

>>I celebrate (I think) Perseverance touching down on Mars.

Me too. 

>>2 QQs that are unanswered:

>>when this robot's life is done, what happens to the hardware?Like Sojourner, and Spirit, and Opportunity before her, when Perseverance shuts down, it'll remain where it is on the Martian surface until some future mission finds & moves it. >>are we spreading Earth junk in space? Have you seen how much stuff is wooshing around over our heads?  Yes, we're spreading junk - but, it's very expensive *clean* junk. >>Is littering allowed on Mars?Don't think of it as litter;  instead, think of it as markers left by us to be utilized by future explorers. >>what if the same thing happened to Earth? Have you seen the Earth...  It's happening A LOT. >>Would we accept an extra-terrestrial object from an unknown>>world plopping down somewhere to observe us and collect data?Are you kidding???  We'd go *gaga* over the thing.  It's evidence that advanced intelligence exists beyond Earth; it's going to be radioing back it's findings, and we could possibly decipher how to communicate with an extraterrestrial people... it means that Mankind is not alone in the universe.  I guess I have to hope they don't land their rover in the ocean... >>I don't mind space exploration, Well, that's better than hating it... sorta. >>but I want scientists to observe the park guideline: "take >>nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints". But Perseverance doesn't *have* feet.... >> Mars isn't "ours" to use.I fully disagree with this, but that's another debate.